


I ship it!

by Fiora



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: And Clint, Bucky just wants to make Steve happy, F/M, Matchmaking, Natasha ships Steve and Darcy together, Natasha takes the reins, Steve is pining, and no shit from anyone, and of course Jane, and thor, but quite often Steve is his own biggest problem, so does bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 08:47:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4385462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fiora/pseuds/Fiora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I totally ship them,” Natasha remarks when the two of them have disappeared into the elevator and takes another sip of her tea. </p><p>Bucky and Clint just stare incredulously at her and she stares back. “What?” she asks after a few minutes.<br/>“You ‘ship’ them? What the fuck does that mean?” Bucky has gotten used to a lot of modern lingo, but sometimes he is still confused. </p><p>“It means that I want them to get together. I mean look at them! Those two failboats pretend to be friends and don’t see they’d be perfect for each other.”</p><p>_____</p><p>Nat and Bucky can't stand Steve's pining for Darcy anymore and - with some unhelpful advice from Clint - try to do something about it. But it is easier said than done...</p>
            </blockquote>





	I ship it!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenfoxes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenfoxes/gifts).
  * Inspired by [something to fill the space](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1975305) by [sevenfoxes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenfoxes/pseuds/sevenfoxes). 



> I read last weekend on tumblr that it was sneakyfoxes b-day, so: Happy belated Birthday!
> 
> I used "Something to fill the space" as inspiration and took approx. a year to write this... because I'm super slow when writing and some stuff just didn't want to be written for a while. (And I had to work and study and deal with some othrr stuff in the meantime
> 
> (Additional inspiration: [I ship it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCDgJiPBxfI) by Not Literally Productions)

It all starts in the kitchen, when Darcy gets a refill for her lab. Steve offers to help her carry everything down to the labs, because she cannot just bring coffee. When she is in the kitchen anyway, she can take some sandwiches and cake to feed the wild scientists roaming in the lower levels of the tower. And Steve’s offer earns him a brilliant smile from Darcy, which in turn makes Steve blush just the tiniest bit. Bucky can totally see Steve’s ear reddening.

Nat, Bucky, Clint and Steve were writing their mission reports with the help coffee and cake, they were long overdue by now, but no one liked the paper work. (Only Hill’s strict reminder that they had to file all of it until tomorrow otherwise they’d have a big problem on their hands brought them to do it now.) They don’t have a new mission anywhere in sight, so there is no excuse to let it slip any longer.

They had practically first row seats since the beginning. Because Steve blushing like mad when Darcy smiles at him? Even if he denies it later, Captain America has totally a thing for their favorite lab assistant. And Darcy’s uncharacteristic reservation around Steve sometimes? It just doesn’t come out of the blue, and her insistence that she and Steve are good friends doesn’t fool someone who lies for a living.

“I totally ship them,” Natasha remarks when the two of them have disappeared into the elevator and takes another sip of her tea.

Bucky and Clint just stare incredulously at her and she stares back. “What?” she asks after a few minutes.

“You ‘ship’ them? What the fuck does that mean?” Bucky has gotten used to a lot of modern lingo, but sometimes he is still confused.

“It means that I want them to get together. I mean look at them! Those two failboats pretend to be friends and don’t see they’d be perfect for each other.”

Bucky kind of gets the idea. Steve’s pining after Darcy is adorable, but it has become a bit sad lately, because that dumbass he calls his best friend is refusing to act on his feelings and Bucky wants to see Steve happy. He deserves it after everything. And Darcy? Even though he and Nat have a… thing, he can appreciate that their favorite scientist tamer is funny, an absolute delight to be around and gorgeous with her pin-up figure, the red lips and creamy skin. Without Steve and Nat in the picture he probably wouldn’t say no to her.

“Steve likes her. A lot. But he’s too shy to ask her out and thinks that she deserves more. Whatever the hell ‘more’ is.” Go big or go home, Bucky thinks. Maybe Nat or Clint can think of something. He tried to talk Steve into asking her out, but it has been an absolute failure so far. Steve claims a) to be way too busy to woo a woman like Darcy the way she deserves, b) not ready for a woman like her, c) not ready for the disappointment when she would say no (as if, Bucky is 120% sure Darcy would say yes instantly), and d) not deserving of Darcy because he would just endanger her or some other stuff in the unlikely event of her saying yes. (Steve didn’t name the last one per se, but Bucky knows how to read Steve’s subtext. And here the subtext was as obvious as a Times Square billboard advertisement.)

Natasha smiles that terrifying smile of hers, so Bucky knows that she knows he jumped onto this bandwagon. “What do we know about Darcy’s dating habits?”

“Ahem,” Clint begins after a short pause. “I’m pretty sure she once told me that she dated a football player during high school? And someone from the swimming team when she was an undergrad?”

“So she’s not adverse to men who are men muscled and toned? And with Steve?” Natasha looks expectantly at Bucky.

“He’s always liked opinionated women. Has a tendency for brunettes. And 90% of the time he is unable to talk with them or stumbles over his words when he likes a woman. Basically Darcy is totally his type.”

“So we have basic information about both of them. But what is most important: There is a mutual attraction, even though they are too oblivious to see it. We need to get more information, work on a plan and then we can bring this mission on our way,” Nat concludes and grabs the last piece of chocolate cake.

Damn, Bucky thinks, he wanted that for himself, but he learned a long time ago that you should not come between Nat and her food.

~*~

The problem is that Steve holds his distance from Darcy most of the time outside the tower. He’s super sweet on her when he sees her, his eyes follow her when she is in vicinity but he doesn’t initiate any closer contact whatsoever. Which means, Bucky, Nat and Clint have to push those two a bit into the right direction.

Their first foray into the world of relationship bringers, barely two weeks later, is an absolute failure. (And Bucky had to leave pretty suddenly for a mission, so he wasn’t even able to coordinate and participate in detail.) Nat had asked Darcy about her favorite pub and then dragged Steve and Clint with her. So when Bucky arrives in New York after two weeks in the desert and asks them what has happened, they cannot tell him much.

“Total failure. Lewis is dating that new guy from accounting. Henry.”

Bucky is stunned, that’s totally not what he expected. But it explains Steve’s moping this morning. (Steve doesn’t like to talk about his feelings, but Bucky knows him well enough to know that his sulking has been going on for a bit. Steve must have been drawing like crazy the past few days and his art supplies are not as neat as they normally are. Disorderly painting equipment has always been a bad sign when Steve is concerned, usually his art supply could rival the color coding at Manhattan’s finest art shop.)

“It started all wrong,” Natasha continues. “Clint was super obvious when he ‘recognized’ Darcy. Fortunately Steve was too transfixed to notice. He was trying to hide his staring at Darcy for like the next thirty minutes. He probably thought I wouldn’t notice… but even Clint noticed.” Nat rolls her eyes.

Bucky sighs. Oh Steve!

“Unfortunately, that’s only half of the story. As I said, Clint was way too obvious; he talked about Darcy, kept glancing at Steve and so on. If Steve hadn’t been staring so hard at her … you know…”

“Ugh,” is Bucky’s only reply. How Clint sometimes survives his mission is a mystery to Bucky, his non-spy persona is as subtle as a sledgehammer.

“She was sitting there with Henry, obviously on a date. Steve didn’t say a thing and tried to be very nonchalant about it, but I think he was secretly devastated. He had this…” Nat pauses for a moment. “He had this ‘kicked puppy’ look about him. You know what I mean, his ‘I’m in pain, but I don’t want anyone to know’ thing.”

Bucky just sighs again. Steve’s self-sacrificial streak has always been a problem when it comes to his interaction with women in this century.

“The worst is that we’re not finished with this. Then the next day we had to get some stuff from Tony and I took the boys with me. And Steve’s crush was so massively visible. I was really astonished at the lack of hearts flying over his head. But it was like Steve has never talked to a woman before – ever. And her signs were pretty obvious. All the smiling at Steve, the pushing her hair behind her ear, the touching that went quite a bit beyond Darcy’s normally already tactile self… whatever. She was very Darcy, but in a more friendly, inviting way and he just didn’t get it!”

Bucky groans, he knows that Nat has a tendency to over dramatize sometimes, but he also knows Steve. So he fears that Nat is not really far off the truth.

“We were lucky that Tony was so occupied with his machinery, otherwise he’d have noticed and you know how he is. He would have wanted to participate our little endeavor.”

Somehow Bucky imagines Tony’s participation in this with truckloads of flowers being delivered to Darcy and so much useless stuff ending in her apartment. And Pepper yelling at Tony for another spectacularly failed idea. Even if it would very likely scare Steve and Darcy away from each other, it would be hilarious. In a way it would be spectacular to witness.

“Don’t even think about it.” His thoughts are interrupted by Natasha and he tries not to look too guilty.

“Oh, and when Darcy was leaving after Steve behaved like a tool, he was watching her again like a drowning man seeing the lifeline to rescue him. I bet he imagined banging her on her desk, or Tony’s work table.”

“I fear that this assignment turns out a lot more complicated than we thought at the beginning. Don’t you, Nat?”

“We’ll work on it.” Sometimes he envies her optimism.

~*~

A week later Natasha, Clint and Bucky are in SHIELD’s cafeteria for their lunch and are able to watch Darcy and Henry, who are sitting across the room. Steve was in 15 minutes ago and he – when he had glimpsed them – got that that incredibly suffering look on his face. Bucky recognizes it too well. It’s probably barely recognizable for everyone else, but 1) he knows Steve since forever and 2) he’s been trained to read people really well. (It says “She’s with another man and I wish I was him, but I would just bring her misery and despair so I better not even try and let her find happiness elsewhere.”)

Natasha is digging into her spaghetti, but after seeing Steve’s face Bucky seems to have lost his appetite. He’s still eating, but somehow the food doesn’t taste that good anymore. Meanwhile Natasha watches Darcy and Henry like a hawk. (Hah! Bucky wishes he could make this remark out loud but his dinner companions wouldn’t appreciate it much.) Just Clint seems oblivious to the little drama and finishes his lunch in record speed.

“So our plan for Steve and Darcy didn’t work out, due to unforeseen circumstances… We should look for someone else to pair with Cap.” Clint drains his glass in a big gulp.

“Unforeseen circumstances,” Natasha huffs. “That’s one way of putting it. Have you seen Henry?” Bucky glances at the guy again and nods, not knowing what she wants to say exactly. “He’s just not right.”

“He’s a nice guy,” Clint tries to argue.

Natasha just rolls her eyes. “I don’t trust your people evaluation skills anymore. Remember that one incident in Bogota? And, more recently, your little bit of misinformation that Steve’s physique fits Darcy’s type?” Clint shrinks slightly into his chair, when Natasha looks at him. “Believe me, Henry is weird. He may be nice, but … ughh.”

Still a little nonplussed, Bucky just nods. (He learned a long time ago, that this is sometimes the only accepted reaction when Nat is so determined.) Clint stays quiet, even though he seems to want to say more, but his mobile rings and after he reads the message he excuses himself. SHIELD business.

“But what do we do now? And maybe what Clint said is not totally…”

“Clint.” Natasha makes some weird, derogatory sound. “He didn’t have a clue about Darcy’s supposed preferences. If we want to get stuff done here, Clint isn’t the person to go to. He also has an appallingly bad taste in music, I mean who likes the banjo as an instrument?”

Natasha clears her plate. If it wouldn’t be considered impolite, she’d probably lick the plate, Bucky thinks.

“Oh and remember what I told you about Steve at the lab with Darcy? I took him at least three times now, but Steve seems to have his foot stuck in his mouth. He has no clue how to approach a woman he is interested in?”

Bucky sighs heavily, but nods. Steve was always a little tongue tied around women in general. But with Agent Carter it hadn’t been that bad. Bucky had hoped that this had transferred into the present or disappear over time, but obviously no.

“So it seems we have hit an obstacle on our way. What do we do now? It’s not like we can remove him. We’re not Soviet spies anymore, we can’t do anything we want…”

“Hmmmm,” she hums. “We aren’t working for Soviet Russia anymore, but obstacle removement can have many, many different faces.” She smiles this terrifying smile Bucky got to know so well over the decades, and Tony Stark admittedly finds creepy. “Leave it to me.”

And she does it. Another week after their conversation, Henry is – mysteriously – transferred to Greenland. Bucky doesn’t really want to know how she did it, but he kind of does anyway because he thinks that he should try to learn that kind of tactic.

So when the three spies come together again shortly after and Clint comments: “Henry’s move to Greenland has put an unexpected stop to their relationship, huh? So Darcy really doesn’t seem to like the muscly guys as much as the artsy, hipster type. Guess I was wrong about that. But I swear that she told me about that footballer.” Natasha just glares at him. Again.

~*~

Most of the time Clint likes to have a mission, he likes having something to do. He loves his work.  But sometimes his missions are boring and annoy the shit out of him, especially when his very own daily soap is running at home in the tower. (And let’s face it, spending two weeks in some rainy hamlet in south-east Asia is no fun whatsoever when you have to observe that one single person all day long.) So when he’s back, he makes a beeline directly to Nat’s apartment, without any stop whatsoever.

His first words, after an almost one month absence with the bare minimum of communication are: “Have I missed anything? Has Steve made a move yet?” Afterwards he lets himself fall straight onto Nat’s creamy white couch.

Natasha’s hand connects with the back of his head. Hard.

“It’s nice to hear that you are not injured and everything went well. But no, you haven’t missed anything. Those two dweebs are still ignoring that they are a match made in heaven. Steve is too shy to speak to her and Darcy just shoots him the occasional glance, but ignores him otherwise as a dating possibility. And now get your dirty ass away from my couch.”

Clint doesn’t react to the last one. “But…but… we had it all set up? Steve bringing her home after that awful fundraiser, being totally gentlemanlike and shit. What went wrong? Darcy hates those things and 99% of the people at it?”

“Human failure, Clint. The plan had too many variables. Darcy went home with Francois from translation. He’s new. Supposedly very charming. And French. So I suppose his accent is interesting for some people.” She rolls her eyes and gives him a shove. “And get your ass from my couch or you’ll have to get it cleaned!”

Before she can continue to shove him, he gets up. Clint is disappointed. He had hopes, man. Not that he would ever tell anyone besides Nat. Especially not Tony. (Even though he would never admit it in public, one of his favorite movies of all time is The Princess Bride.)

~*~

Four months after their little endeavor had started the three spies are sitting together and are a little frustrated. Francois is history now, but it seems that their timing is never quite right and Darcy is a lot better in getting to know men than most of the people around her. (Because let’s face it, in the SI science department she works in, are 100% hopeless nerds who have a hard time approaching a potential partner, Jane and Tony are the total exceptions.) After Francois there was Richie, whom Darcy met while she was waiting in the queue at her favorite coffee shop. And then there was Jeff. And now she’s dating Aaron from Intelligence. It seems that Darcy attracts men like a light attracts moths.

“Sometimes I get the feeling that those two are absolutely hopeless. I mean I’ve been rooting for them for months now. And what do they do? Date other people, mope around, and pretend to be friends. What else can we do? Steve absolutely refuses to act and Darcy keeps dating all those guys. Maybe she isn’t interested. That’s sad for Steve but… he’ll get over it some time.”

Bucky just sighs at Clint’s rant. He had sneaked a peek into Steve’s sketchbook and had seen at least ten pages of drawings of Darcy. Full drawings, or just her hands, her profile, her face. Beautifully done with great detail. Steve has it really, really bad. Bucky suspects Steve won’t be over his crush on Darcy for quite a bit.

“Maybe we really have to give up this little project?” Clint asks and Bucky, he loves Steve like a brother and wants him happy, but all the failures to get Steve and Darcy together? Maybe Clint wasn’t totally wrong. And even super assassins with success rates nearing 100% could only take that much disappointment.

But Natasha is – surprisingly enough – the one who wants to keep going. “Give up now? Think of not as a mission with instant success, but a more long term project. I am certain that they’d be great together and we’ve come so far. Why give up now?”

He and Clint mull a bit over this, but Nat is totally right. They started this and now he wants to see at least a glimpse of how good Steve and Darcy could be as a couple.

“I see what you’re doing.”

At that the spy trio’s heads are shooting around. Jane Foster stands in the door, arms crossed, one eyebrow up and watching them intensely. They didn’t plan on anyone walking in on them. The three of them are assassins and normally they realize such a thing ten steps ahead of everyone, but sometimes, just sometimes, people tend to surprise you.

“What are we doing?” Natasha is her usual calm self, but Jane Foster, astrophysicist extraordinaire and normally a tiny bit unobservant when it comes to things nearer than one galaxy, just cocks one eyebrow up and waits with her arms folded. It’s not like she can really intimidate the three of them, but weirdly Bucky feels himself being taken decades back, when his mother caught him (and sometimes Steve) doing something she considered stupid.

It’s almost like a reflex to say: “We’re doing anything! Really!” At this Natasha glares at him (for a change) and Jane rolls her eyes.

“The slightly obvious matchmaking? Pushing Darcy and Steve towards their happily ever after? That thing!”

“Ohhh, you mean that thing.” Bucky glances at Nat and Clint.

“I presume that you’re here to tell us that we should stop our… endeavor?” Natasha asks.

“No, not really,” comes the surprising answer. “I think it’s a great idea, but try to be a little less obvious around Thor.” Jane sighs. “He suspected something yesterday, but I was able to distract him again.”

“Would he try to stop us?” Natasha really likes the big guy; she would hate to disappoint him.

“No, he’d probably be over the moon. But he tends to be a bit over enthusiastic when it comes to his friends. And he adores Darcy, you know that. And he and Steve are pals, I mean Steve is one of the few mortals he can spar with without fearing he might kill them accidentally. And they share a lot of values, weirdly enough if you think about it. If you’d tell him that you’d work on trying to get Steve and Darcy together he would do everything to help you. But – as much as I love him – subtlety is not his forte sometimes. And in this case, you need to be subtle. Because Darcy acts a bit like a lovesick  but shy doe around Steve, and he seems too shy, or polite to really act on his feelings.”

“Lovesick? Didn’t seem like it,” is Natasha’s only answer.

“Hell yes, lovesick. But she thinks he’s miles out of her league, that’s why she was dating that weirdo from HR. Or taking her chances with that sweater guy.” Obviously Jane didn’t like Jeff or Henry. “So continue with whatever it is you are doing. But try to be a bit more discreet about it.” And with this sentence Jane is on the way again, probably down to the labs.

The three assassins watch her leave.

“So that was unexpected,” Clint comments a few moments after she disappeared in the doorway.

“But quite informative. We probably have to change our approach a tiny bit. So far we thought Steve would be the main problem… but it seems that those two are equally stunted in relationship questions.”

~*~

Up till now their main focus has been Steve, and Darcy, while a vital participant in their plan, has been not as reconnoitered so far. Natasha plans to change this. From all their interactions she witnessed so far, there had been attraction on both sides, but now she – they – needed more. They have Jane’s word, sure, but it still is just hearsay and some random observations.

Just to get a better reading on Darcy’s preferences and inclinations, Nat decides to take her to the gym, of course coincidentally when Steve is sparring there with Bucky. Nat also knows that quite often these days, the two forego their shirts during said exercise. If that doesn’t get a reaction out of Darcy, which tells them something about her potential attraction towards Steve, Nat might be inclined to follow Clint’s suggestion to maybe looking somewhere else for Steve.

Maybe.

Luckily there is a purpose to this, so before she’s off with Darcy to their “Ladies Night”. She and Barnes were on a mission last week and he still hadn’t sent in his reports, which means that he has to take the evening to finally finish it and can’t even rely on Nat to help him out, because obviously she’s already finished. (The women of the tower try to have a get together at least once a month, but way too often one of the women of their little group is missing. Pepper is busy, Natasha gets sent somewhere, Jane is off to Asgard, sunken knee deep in science or she and Darcy are on some kind of expedition to get some very important readings from some station god-knows-where.) So Nat can rant off a bit, rip Barnes a new one and test Darcy’s… reaction to Steve.

And the mission is a total success. Darcy tries – but totally fails – to be discreet about it, but the way she glances at Steve when she’s sure he isn’t looking speaks for itself. But Nat is impressed, Darcy is very capable of keeping it together inside the gym. No leering, no obvious staring (Clint could learn a thing or two), no salivating over two prime examples of manhood.

When they are off to the penthouse Darcy discreetly fans herself in the elevator, and her cheeks are suspiciously red, but otherwise no big reaction.

All in all a very successful intermediate step in their little mission.

~*~

Natasha often keeps to herself. She knows that all the other women that live in the tower and are part of the “Avengers” life like her, but very often she keeps a bit to herself. It is a habit which has been trained into her from very early on and it is very hard to shake. In the past few years she has moved away from keeping herself totally isolated, and the last few months living in the tower have accelerated this development, but it is still a long learned habit.

She goes to their Ladies’ Nights whenever she can, sometimes she has lunch with Pepper or Maria. And she often talks with Darcy and Jane. So she is able to kill two birds with a stone when she asks Darcy for lunch today. One, she really likes Darcy, the young woman is a joy to be around; two, she is able to test the ground a bit more when it comes to the project “Bringing Steve and Darcy together”.

Also: She loves the little Italian restaurant they have decided to take their lunch together. Their pizza is amazing on its own, but the spaghetti with meatballs is to die for. (The last time she was here with Bucky, Steve and Clint; the four of them ate probably all the dishes on the menu at least once.)

Darcy tells her about Tony’s latest misadventures in the lab and has her in stitches with the way she retells how he got stuck under a piece of machinery and couldn’t get out until Dummy had made at least three attempts to lift the thing up. Darcy is so full of life and so positive about life… Natasha knows she and Steve would be perfect together, they have so much in common. So she decides to just go for it.

“So I noticed you ogling Steve, when he accompanied me to the lab the last time.”

Darcy groans. “Oh God, was I THAT obvious? I’m always trying to keep it to a minimum. Really!”

“Don’t sweat it, I don’t think Steve and Bucky noticed. It was just really obvious to me.” Internally Natasha wants to squeal in delight, but really tries really hard to squash that impulse. Focusing on her food seems to be the wisest choice, so she digs into her pasta.

But after a few minutes of eating in silence, Natasha tries casually to continue this conversation. “You like Steve then? Or is he not your type and you just appreciate his superb physique?”

Darcy looks slightly uncomfortable. “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.” Darcy takes a bite of her fettuccini. “While I think that Steve is a gorgeous, beautiful man to look at, he has more going for him than just his appearance. I mean he is just the nicest man on the planet!”

So adorable! And that is exactly why she has refused to give up so far. Steve and Darcy finally together would make the cutest couple and Darcy could take away a bit of Steve’s loneliness. With the way Darcy is decidedly avoiding to look in her eyes, Nat is sure that Darcy’s thoughts about the star spangled man have even more interesting details and she just got the tame version.

“Why don’t you try your luck with him? I think you’d make a cute couple.” Nat just lets this stand there. Being too obvious would probably tip even Darcy off that there is something going on there.

“No, really, I don’t think that’d be a good idea. I mean, him and me meet on a regular basis through work and friends and … stuff. If this would get weird, it would affect more than just the two of us. Also I don’t think that someone like him, would go out with someone like me.” The last sentence is spoken so low that Natasha can hardly hear it. But it makes her a tiny bit angry. But she knows that an angry rant is the last thing Darcy needs now, nor more encouragement about how Steve is the nicest guy on this planet and totally into her. So Nat just hums disapprovingly and guides the conversation to less dangerous (and aggravating) topics.

~*~

Sometimes it’s almost like their project is jinxed by some higher power. If Bucky would still believe in God, he’d make him responsible, but since fighting side-by-side with a real God Bucky has lost every ounce of belief his mother tried to install in him.

But shortly after Darcy and Aaron had parted ways, they all thought she was free for some matchmaking. But no, she and Charlie, Banner’s post-doc student have become a thing. A thing that obviously lasts. So far longer than Aaron, Jeff and Francois. Steve’s secret sadness has reached unprecedented levels, Bucky can hardly stand it. All the desperate glances and hidden drawing books…

By the time of Pepper’s birthday party, Charlie is on her side longer than Henry. Or the other three together. It’s infuriating because he is so nice, it makes it really hard for Bucky to dislike him just because he is an obstacle on the way to Steve’s happiness.

But he’s also a bit angry with Steve. They had created multiple opportunities for him and somehow every single one went by without anything happening. Sometimes Bucky just wants to take Steve and shake some sense in him. Like just now… Bucky is a bit fed up with everything.  So when they are standing at the cocktail bar and Steve has this… look in his eyes, he had just wanted to point out that Darcy obviously valued personality over looks? Steve looked like a kicked puppy and he had felt bad immediately. But damn, Steve’s self-doubts were the size of Stark’s not-self doubts and somehow those two needed to trade a bit.

Bucky sighs. “Steve, you do realize that for Darcy to give you a chance you are very likely required to verbally communicate with her, right?” Another sad look from America’s most patriotic face. Bucky prefers to not look at it and orders another drink. He should just let it go and let Steve sort out his love life on his own… Steve chugs his beer while Charlie leads Darcy onto the dance floor, where they are playing something slow and romantic at the moment.

“I don’t get it, you weren’t even this tongue-tied around Carter, and the woman fucking shot at you, Steve.” It’s out of his mouth before he can stop himself, but Steve just shrugs and orders another beer.

Natasha interrupts their (one-sided) conversation, which is probably for the best. Otherwise Bucky might have gotten the impulse to grab both, Steve and Darcy, and lock them into the Hulk’s panic room until they sort out their secret longing for each other and have wild, passionate sex.

They all lay a bit low at the moment in their ‘secret mission’. The day after Pepper’s birthday, Nat has to go on a mission and Clint has proven himself to be generally unhelpful except for some commentaries and his will to have them together in general. And Bucky really thought he should just quit it and leave Steve on his own in this. But he finds, that he just can’t.

Bucky is a bit desperate, so he uses Nat’s ‘Henry move’ – she told him how after some poignant questions. So Charlie will be on his way to Borneo very soonish, with a very low chance of returning anytime soon.

(After Natasha hears about Charlie’s relocation, she gives him the most shit-eating grin he has seen on her in years.)

~*~

There is one thing about Steve that Bucky just doesn’t get. Mainly because the part of him that was trained as the Winter Soldier considers it a huge risk and would never take it. But Steve Rogers is, in some ways, a total creature of habit. So every Sunday afternoon, whenever Steve is not on a mission, he is sitting in a tiny café in Brooklyn and paints. Surprisingly Steve’s “coffee shop sketch book” is almost Darcy free. Bucky had suggested it so Steve would focus on something else (semi-successful), and Steve probably doesn’t want anyone to see the others and all his Darcy drawings.

But sometimes these set-in-stone habits come in pretty useful. When Darcy comes into the communal kitchen shortly after noon on Sunday and whines about having to find a new coffee shop, because her old favorite has been turned into a Starbucks? Nat takes the chance and runs with it. She tells Darcy about this lovely shop in Brooklyn, which has amazing fair-trade coffee, super nice employees and to die for, homemade pastries as well as a really nice crowd going in. Basically she uses everything Darcy ever told them she considers important about a café. After shortly googling it, Darcy is off to research her new, possible favorite coffee location to relax.

Once again, all they can do now is wait.

But Steve comes back from the coffee shop later than ever, with the biggest grin Bucky has seen in a very long time. And Darcy’s lipstick is slightly visible around his mouth and on his neck. Bucky is ecstatic.

~*~

(Of course they mock Steve for it when he sports a giant hickey. But he deserves it after everything they went through because of him.)

A week later or so, Bucky and Nat spy on Darcy’s self-defense lesson which Steve insisted he would give. After a shockingly short training period, which has Natasha muttering something about she would teach Darcy from now on, the two lovebirds are making out

“Finally!” Clint exclaims when he comes into the kitchen, where Nat and Bucky observe Darcy and Steve kissing in the gym on their Stark-Pad.

“Took them long enough.” It’s a bit embarrassing, but Bucky cannot stop grinning.

“You do realize that now, they’re gonna be totally sugar sweet together, always smiling and kissing and cuddling and all the drama from before will be gone. There is no excitement in a happy couple.” Clint is pouting so hard.

“We can always try our luck with someone else. Bruce is single.” Natasha zooms in on Darcy’s and Steve’s faces.

“And there is no way Steve will be able to progress to other stages in this relationship without our help. Moving in together, proposing…all that stuff,” Bucky muses.

(They are totally wrong when it comes to that; Steve is admirably good at the “relationship stuff” on his own. He’s just not good when it comes to getting into a relationship stuff. Darcy moves into his apartment in the tower after five months and Steve proposes in the café where they met a year after that.)


End file.
